If a church has to have a commerical ...

Why can't United Methodists do one like this ...



Instead of one like this ...



Hey ... I am just asking.

Two Prayers for a President and a Nation

In my next post, I will reflect a little on "praying in the public square" - but before doing that, I wanted to post video and full transcripts of Rick Warren's and Joseph Lowery's prayers at the Inauguration. Both prayers have created quite a stir - and both seem to have ignited commentators on opposite ideological poles. Before I bring my reflections - feel free to comment on yours at the end of this post! I would like to hear from you - and may use some of that reflection in my post to come.

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The following is a YouTube video followed by the transcript of Pastor Rick Warren’s Invocation Prayer at the Inauguration of President Obama.



Almighty God, our Father, everything we see, and everything we can't see, exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory.

History is your story. The Scripture tells us, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one." And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.

Now today, we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States.

We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.

Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity.
Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.

Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.

When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us.
When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us.
When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.

And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches and civility in our attitudes – even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all.

May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.
And may we never forget that one day, all nations, and all people, will stand accountable before you.

We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.

I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life – Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus – who taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.

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The following is a YouTube video followed by the full transcript of the Rev. Joseph Lowery's benediction at the Inauguration of President Obama.



God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee.

Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand, true to thee, oh God, and true to our native land.
We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day.

We pray now, oh Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration.

He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national, and indeed the global, fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hands, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations.
Our faith does not shrink though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.

For we know that, Lord, you are able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor, of the least of these, and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.

We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union.

And while we have sown the seeds of greed -- the wind of greed and corruption -- and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

And as we leave this mountaintop, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques or wherever we seek your will.

Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little angelic Sasha and Malia.

We go now to walk together as children, pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone.

With your hands of power and your heart of love, help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nations shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back . . . when brown can stick around . . . when yellow will be mellow . . . when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen. Say amen. And amen.

Human Relations Day Tribute

The following tribute was given at Reconciliation UMC on Sunday, January 18th, in commemoration of Human Relations Day, Martin Luther King Jr., and the upcoming historic Inauguration on January 20, 2009.

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In two days, our nation will experience something that is unprecedented in the 233 years of our history since the Declaration of Independence in 1776; something that has for most people remained unimaginable for citizens of the United States, especially when one reflects on the sea of white, male presidents succeeding each other - one after the other - not once, not twice, not three times ... but 43 consecutive times since George Washington first took office in 1789. In two days, the nation, whose economy grew so rapidly in its early years, in large part because it was carried on the backs of black slaves, will become the nation that is lead by the first black president whose first priority, ironically enough, will be to address an economic recession, sky-rocking unemployment, and tenets of exploitation and oppression that have made their way into our policies and our post-terrorism approaches to national security. In two days - count them - two days - less then 48 hours - don't miss the irony - a BLACK family will step for the very first time in history into what has been a very WHITE house for over 200 years.

I say that today, and I say it IN CHURCH, because the church can and should have something to say about such things. The church should have something to say about such things if it still seeks to be faithful to the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ - whom Luke describes as the One who came to bring release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed, announcing that the time of salvation had come to all people.

I say that today, and I say it IN CHURCH, not because I am "political," nor because RUMC is "political" - but because Jesus is political. And please also hear what I am not saying. I am not saying Jesus is a Democrat. I am not saying Jesus is a Republican. I am not saying that Barrack Obama is God's answer to all of the problems in the U.S. I am not saying that a vote for Obama this past fall was a vote for good and a vote for McCain was a vote for evil. I am not saying that God's kingdom has now come to earth because we now have a black president, though such a reality does represent a new day in a nation that was founded on the enslavement of displaced people from Africa and the extermination of native people already living in the Americas.

What I am saying is this - thanks be to God for small signs of the kingdom that point to a new day beyond slavery, beyond our sordid history of Jim Crow segregation and prejudice, beyond the old, tired (and they are OLD and they are TIRED) categories of race and class that have been barriers to God's truth and justice for too long. And remember this Church - before there was an "audacity of hope" there was a "Living Hope that came into the world" to free us from sin, from racism, from hatred, and from any and all barriers that would separate us from loving God and our neighbor as God intended from the beginning.

I find it ironic - no - I find it providential that this Tuesday's inauguration of the first black president comes on the heels of Monday's celebration of a black, Baptist preacher and prophet named Martin Luther King Jr. The Obama family is headed to the White House only because a lot of black, white, and brown families headed to the prayer house; Barack Obama will take to the podium on Tuesday morning because so many women and men before him first took to the streets proclaiming God's justice and freedom for all people; Barack will lay his hand on the Bible and take an oath of service because generations of Civil Rights workers and leaders laid their lives on the line and promised to live out the truths of the Scriptures, come hell, high water, hoses, and dogs. It is because of God's saints and martyrs who have preceded us in God's battle for justice that we are able to see some of the fruits of their labor this coming week.

One of those saints, with battle scars from previous engagements with injustice, will be the first to pray over the new president after he has been sworn in. I speak of the United Methodist pastor, Civil Rights leader and activist, Rev. Joseph E. Lowery. It is on his shoulder, and thousands of shoulders like his, that we stand today at this monumental juncture in history. I am reminded of the boldness of Lowery in 2006, at Coretta Scott King's funeral, where the then retired UM pastor received a standing ovation when he remarked before four U.S. Presidents in attendance:

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor!"

It is that kind of courage and faith - the kind that speaks God's truth without fear or remorse - it is that kind of faith we celebrate this Human Relations Sunday - that we commemorate on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. tomorrow - and that we reap the benefits of on Tuesday morning when we witness the inauguration of our nation's 44th president.

So let us pray for our nation's leaders, and in particular - President Obama and his family. Let us remember the advocates and martyrs for justice in the Civil Rights Movement, of all races and colors, who travelled this way before us with unwavering faith and resolve. And let us give thanks to God who is still leading us towards that dream given to one of his great prophets - a dream where people are judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.